2011 Monza Superbike: Pirelli Report

With Round 4 of the 2011 World Superbike Championship at Monza in the books, Pirelli Moto WSBK racing directory Giorgio Barbier offered some insight of the series’ sole tire supplier, Pirelli.

Both races were won Sunday by Eugene Laverty aboard the Yamaha Superbike YZF-R1. Taking second and third in Race 1 was Max Biaggi (Aprilia) and Leon Haslam (BMW), respectively. In Race 2, Laverty’s teammate Marco Melandri took second, and Michel Fabrizio (Suzuki) took third.

Following is the Pirelli tire report (Monza World Superbike, Italy):

Giorgio Barbier says: “Pirelli returned to its home circuit just a half hour away from its headquarters with a special treat: a bi-compound qualifying tyre identified by tri-coloured stripes and ‘150th Italy’ label to commemorate the unification of Italy. Superpole was even more memorable when Biaggi (Aprilia) rode around the Monza circuit on his Diablo Superbike tyres with the fastest average speed (204.4 km/h) in WSBK history, setting also a new track record of 1’41.745.

“Pirelli provided a total of 4600 tyres comprised of 3 front and 2 rear bi-compound tyres for the SBK class and 3 front and 3 rear tires for SSP, with the premier class requiring bi-compound rear solutions to manage Monza’s high speed turns. Unfortunately, of the two rear tire solutions based on the previous years’ data, the softer (A) tyre was not suitable to perform the entire race with the 40-45°C asphalt temperatures encountered this race weekend and was thus not utilized during either race.

“Superbike Race 1 saw 10 riders on the mid-soft (SC2) reference tyre, 6 on the soft (SC1), and 4 on the newer mid-soft. In a race filled with a high number of exciting passes, it was a three-manufacturer podium with Yamaha, Aprilia and BMW, and even the fastest lap went to Fabrizio on his Suzuki (1’43.275).

“The second SBK race and the Supersport race were dominated by Yamaha, with incredible performances from Laverty, Melandri, Davies and Scassa. Both of the Yamaha Superbikes topped 332.5 km/h on the main straight, just a fraction off Biaggi’s (Aprilia) top speed in Superpole. Although Ducati had difficulty in Superbike, they still had their day in STK1000 with a track record for Giugliano, a feat also accomplished by Yamaha in the Stk600 class.”